My main restriction is redistribution — people can read and modify the code for personal use. Since the default with no license is already “all rights reserved”, this project is mostly a test for me. I’m also cautious about someone copying or commercializing it, so I’m treating this as a learning exercise about licensing and distribution.

For this project I’m mainly testing distribution models. My only restriction is redistribution — people can read and modify the code for personal use. I’m also cautious about someone copying or commercializing it, so this is mostly a learning exercise for me.

Source‑available still lets people read and modify the code for personal use — they just can’t redistribute it. For me that’s a reasonable model for small tools, even if there’s always a risk someone will copy it. This project is mainly a distribution experiment.

Thanks for the perspective — I’ll take it into consideration. I still need to learn more about licensing and monetization models anyway.

Thanks for your perspective. From my point of view, making the code visible gives users the ability to read it and modify it for their own needs — the only restriction is redistribution. For this project that felt like a reasonable balance while I’m experimenting with distribution models.

Thanks for the perspective — I definitely need to learn more about licensing and how these things work in practice.

I’m not trying to prove which license is better — too many variables, like you said. I’m just testing how different models change user behavior: who clicks, who downloads, who ignores. It’s more about distribution patterns than software quality.

It’s not really “closed‑source” — the code is source‑available on Gumroad. GitHub here is more of a landing page / documentation than a code host. The tool itself is tiny and console‑based, but the whole point of this project is the distribution experiment. I’m trying PWYW 0$+ to learn how small tools can be shared, not to monetize a Pomodoro timer.

Right — that’s why I’m calling it source‑available. I’m mainly testing user behavior around distribution, not trying to define what’s ‘open’ or not.

Just to understand you better — what counts as ‘AI‑authored’ for you?

For me the closed‑source vs source‑available vs open-source choice is mainly about learning distribution models, not about AI‑authored code. I wrote and understand the code — I just wanted to test a model that allows distribution and PWYW, which open‑source doesn’t really support.